


Farm Healing

by ssa_archivist



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, First Time, Humor, M/M, episode-related, hurt-comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-05-02
Updated: 2004-05-02
Packaged: 2017-11-01 10:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/355839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssa_archivist/pseuds/ssa_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Mirror Mirror, written with permission from Original Author.  Will Lex ever recover? And will Jonathan Kent be able to handle it? <g></p>
            </blockquote>





	Farm Healing

## Farm Healing

by Jazzy

[]()

* * *

Smallville: Farm Healing 1/1   
Author: Jazzy  
Pairing: CLex (barely)  
Rating: R (some language)  
Sequel to: Mirror, Mirror (by C.M. Decarnin) <http://garret.slashcity.net>

Category/Warnings: Post - Shatter and Asylum {AU} Humor & some Dark themes. (not Beta'd) 

Feel Free to Archive: Archive: Smallville Slash Archive (or anywhere else that has Mirror, Mirror archived) 

Disclaimers: Smallville not mine. Characters not mine. "Farm Healing" was written with permission from the author C.M. Decarnin. 

Summary: Can Lex come out of his downward spiral, or will he be little Alexander for the rest of his life? What will Jonathan Kent do if that happens, and how long can he keep Lionel from figuring out the truth? 

**~FARM HEALING~**

At first when Clark told us he was bringing Lex over to stay for the night and possibly longer I was anxious. I didn't know what to expect. With one psychotic break and now this? I didn't know what I should do or what I should say or what I should allow between the two. I knew Lex was going to need a lot of help and I didn't think we were the solution the Luthor boy needed. 

Clark had been afraid for his friend. I could sympathize with that. I'm not as heartless or as cold as my son thinks I am. I make no bones about my dislike for the Luthors but that wouldn't stop me from helping one in a crisis if I needed to. Besides Clark was afraid, truly afraid for his friend and Clark didn't want Lex to end up back in Belle Reve. From all of Clark's accounts Belle Reve had been a dungeon. I think Clark was just overreacting, even exaggerating a little. The clinic is state of the art, has art centers and multi-media and full time twenty-four hour care. But I can hardly blame my son for his drama. He is a teenager after all and a psych ward is a scary place to visit. I wouldn't want to end up there nor would I want Martha or Clark to end up there either. 

Whether or not I liked it Lex was Clark's friend maybe even more then his friend. But I wasn't going to ask. I didn't want to think about it. Its kind of like how I don't want to think about my son getting older or my son having sex with anyone. God I hope he hasn't had sex with anyone. I have to stop that line of thinking. I've raised my son to be a good boy, sorry, a good decent upstanding man and citizen of the United States. I know if Clark's had sex he would use safety and be responsible. 

Hearing my son's voice over the phone with that tremor in it that says how close Clark is to falling apart squeezes my heart painfully. I hear in it how deeply he's been disturbed by the events that were happening to him and Lex but mostly sad and afraid for his friend. Clark rarely feared for himself. My son was all heart. He was a man who looked out for others. I'm glad I've raised him to be a true Kent. 

"Son, how bad is it?" I ask. 

"Lex is unraveling Dad or rather he's trying to get back what he's lost. He's pretty screwed up. I think all he needs is a few days of down time. The farm's a good place to heal. Don't you think?" 

I can't speak immediately. I want to ask in alarm, "Is he violent or spacey or paranoid?" But somehow I refrain from asking these out loud. I know what he's asking. I can't help but caution him anyway. 

"He's dangerous Clark." I say. 

"Dad, he's..." there's a pause I hear Lex in the background asking Clark something. Clark sighs and replies affirmatively to whatever it is Lex is asking of him. 

Clark returns to the phone asking me. "Dad you still there?" 

"Yes, son." I reply, patiently. 

"I don't know how to explain it Dad. It's like Lex is two people. He even explained himself as two people. There's Lex, the one we know, the adult who is charming and cold and my warm friend behind the walls. Then there's Alexander and he's just a kid who has lost his baby brother and his mother and he's grieving and he's never had a friend in his entire life. Can you imagine how lonely that must be Dad? He's never had a friend, not ever. He needs me Dad. He needs you and mom to. Lionel will ship him off to Belle Reve. You know he will. Lex just needs a few days maybe a few weeks of quiet time and he'll be back to normal. I promise Dad." 

"Clark, you can't know that, you can't promise something like that. Psychotic breaks aren't like scraped knees. They don't sting then heal over after a few days. Psychosis is treated through drugs and therapy and it takes years not days or weeks, and even then they're still not cured. I'm very worried son. What if this takes a turn for the worse? What if he decides we're a threat and out to get him? He's shot Phalen and he's shot that scumbag that you worked for while under the influence of the red meteor rock." 

Clark interrupts me. "Daaaad! Stop! He's different. He's a little kid and then he's an adult. He's Lex then he's Alexander. He's lucid in either state. This isn't like the insanity of before. I think this is Lex's mutant ability coming out trying to repair what was destroyed of his synapses and memories and things." 

"Clark, are you trying to tell me that Lex will find out- remember, what happened on that driveway? Is that what you're saying?" 

"Dad, don't panic, don't jump to conclusions. I don't know what this means and personally I don't care. He needs us. He needs my help. And if it means he remembers then we deal with it when the time comes. Right now our first priority is Lex, not me." 

"Clark, I'm you're father of course my first priority is going to be you." 

"Dad, please." Clark begged. I could picture his puppy expression. I tried to harden my heart to it but I couldn't. He was my son. I loved him. It also meant that he could wrap me around his finger like any kid could with his parents. It was times like these that I really hated being an adult and a father. If I said no I would hurt Clark. If I said no I would be turning my back on a neighbor who needed my family's help. 

"Fine. But the first time he remembers you're an alien and he goes all spooky on us, he's out of here and back to Belle Reve so fast that it will make your faster than a speeding bullet shit look like a snail on a mountain going up hill, got me?" 

Clark laughs. I don't think he's taking me seriously. I look up at my ceiling shooting a prayer and a hope towards God. 

"Yes Dad," Clark finally replies. "I understand. I swear he's not like before and the first moment he is I'll take him to Belle Reve myself." 

"All right as long as we understand each other." 

"Thank you Dad. Gotta go, Alexander needs my help. Oh, um Dad, do we have a chess set?" 

I pause to think for a moment my mind's a little rusty. Chess? Do we have a chessboard somewhere? I think, possibly so... a vague memory comes back to me. Then I say, "Martha used to have one. A really nice set. Cost a fortune. I'm not sure where it is right now. I think it may be in the attic. Why do you ask son?" 

"Alexander likes to play Chess." 

"All right, I'll have Martha take a look around for it, but I guess if the kid wants to bring his own over, I think you should let him. Just in case we don't find it, all right Clark." 

"Yeah, all right Dad. Thank you Dad and thank Mom for me to. Bye." 

"See ya later Clark." 

So there Martha and I were preparing our selves for the worst. I suspected Clark was making things seem a little less then what they actually were. I'm not saying my son was lying or anything; however, I felt he might be underestimating the situation. It wouldn't be the first time nor I suspect would it be the last time that he did such a thing. I should have had a little more faith in my son. 

We observed Lex carefully for the first few minutes. All of us were uncomfortable and measuring each other's reactions. Lex was reserved and somber his hand rested gripped tightly in Clark's hand. It was like suddenly the roles were reversed for Clark and Lex. Now Lex was the younger brother figure and Clark was the older protective brother, and maybe Lex needed that. Heaven knows Lex had never been taken care of by a loving father or brother before. 

Martha welcomed him with open arms, a warm hug, and a fresh hot apple pie. I gave Lex the tour and set his night back down by the bed. Clark helped him unpack. Most of the items unloaded from the bag were books and a few personal possessions and a couple of changes of clothes. I was relieved to notice that he'd only packed a couple of days worth so maybe things weren't going to be as bad as I thought they were going to be. 

* * *

Over time we got acquainted with the shy Alexander, who was a little on the spacey side. His attention wandered and his thoughts moved like quick silver jumping from one topic or subject to another. He viewed Martha's kitchen like it was heaven, and for a boy, for a young man, hell even for an older man, it was. My wife cooks like a Goddess. Her food is ambrosia. It is food for the soul. Lex was enraptured. I dare anyone not to be. My wife could open a restaurant and earn five gold stars, I'm positive of it. But I'm not going to encourage her to do so. I'd lose her and I would be lost without her. 

I'm just a man. A man of my generation. We're dependents. 

I didn't ask for the responsibility. I didn't need a Luthor in my house or in my life. Lex grew on me though, kind of like ivy on an oak tree. I am Lex's neighbor, I am a good man and I take my obligations seriously. Lex had saved my farm and saved my son, Kents always repay their debts. I had a duty and I was going to carry it out even if it killed me. Which I thought was going to be very likely possibility. 

Lex sorely tempted my patience by the end of the first day. The kid had a curious nature like a cat with its whole bag of trouble or a crow with a shiny object, Lex liked to explore things. His curiosity was a driving force. He also liked to ask questions, lots of questions. Did I say he was reserved? No, he was just gearing up for the long string of questions he just had to ask me. 

"How does this work?" Lex asked pawing one of my tools and fumbling it and dropping it. "What does this do? Who's your mom? Where does your family come from? How do you grow corn? Why does that tree have a black side and a white side? Did lightening hit it? Cool! 

"Can I stay in Clark's room? When is lunch? What time do you wake up in the morning? I like comics. Do you like comics? I have a baby brother his name is Julian, do you have a brother?" And so on and so on; it was never ending. I like a curious mind as much as anyone. An open mind means a mind that can be molded and shaped. Lex gave me my first migraine. 

It was true what Clark described. Lex was lucid in both states. Lex was a sweetie as a child but cold and remote as an adult. Lex was very charming and very much aware of what was happening to him. This should have terrified me. Some how it didn't. It just made me feel all the more saddened for him. 

I didn't know what to do the first time the change occurred when one state of being flowed into the other. I don't know when I realized Alexander had been replaced by Lex. I think it was his posture. 

Alexander liked to keep his head ducked down and he didn't like to meet our eyes. He was on the extreme side of shy usually except in the rare case when his curiosity would come bubbling out unable to stay behind the walls any longer, then it was a long time before you could get the kid to shut up. 

Whatever you do don't ever engage him in a conversation of Mathematics and Science. I'd been told Lex had an IQ of a genius but I hadn't believed it until now, a man raised to become a business genius was not a true genius in my opinion. He couldn't be one of those rare souls that sparked. I was wrong. 

Alexander liked to write in mathematical equations and he liked to come up with new codes all made from math and computer binary code. He also liked to help Martha on the computer with our accounting system. The kid truly blows my mind. I watched Clark absorb Alexander's codes and write in the same code right back, with perfect understanding. The two would have a ball. It also opened my eyes to Clark's true intelligence. I was stunned and for the first time in my life I had to accept that the farm really was no place for my son to be. 

Lex was looking out from his eyes and into my own. They were sharp and wonderfully blue a shade closer to violet and they sparked with adult awareness. He looked somewhat amused and I wondered why. I raised an eyebrow in inquiry. Lex smirked all the more. I scowled. It was the adult Lex Luthor all right. The chores were finished in silence as we waited for Clark to come home from School. I had to admit though Lex was pretty relaxed here on the farm, as well as very helpful. 

When Lex was Alexander I had to work like heck to keep an eye on him. A steady vigil was always required. I didn't want him to get into the cellar. Alexander was always getting into things and he liked to climb things. He liked to climb barns and trees and house rooftops. The first time he did it I about nearly had another heart attack. I was hyperventilating so much Martha had to be the one to lecture Lex on the rules and practicing safety. When he climbed the Barn rooftop the next day, Martha very sternly told him he was grounded. Lex didn't like that very much. He pouted, and boy could he hold a grudge. He didn't talk to either one of us, Martha or myself, for three whole days. 

I suspected the reason he climbed the roofs and trees was so he could like a King or emperor look from a height or pulpit upon his people and lands. Lex had a drive to prove he was something special. Lionel had programmed him for a destiny like that of a Governor or President. Lex wanted to prove he was someone worthy of love. Martha and I told him and expressed our views in every way we knew how that to us he was already someone special. To us, he didn't need to prove anything except that he was trustworthy. 

I grew to love the child Alexander and to tolerate even respect Lex the adult half of the two personalities. Though I was wary of them both. Against my better judgment I allowed Lex to stay indefinitely knowing undeniably that my growing affections for him would increase. He was turning into a second son for Martha and me. 

I couldn't turn my back on a troubled kid in distress. Even though I kept looking for signs that he remembered Clark's powers. I asked myself every day after that first week. Does he remember yet? How will I know he knows? Can I trust him? Can Clark trust him? Does Clark really trust him? Should I send Lex a way after all? This was a heavy burden. 

Lex may be a good person at heart and knowing little Alexander like I do now I have no doubt that Lex truly is at heart good, but deep down, in his core, Lex is a Luthor and I'd be a fool to truly trust him. I want to trust him. Little Alexander makes me want to reach out to him and trust him. But Lex is Lionel's son. In time Lex will take after his father I have no doubt of that either. Though Lex was hardly fully formed yet his true character would eventually come to the forefront and I was afraid that that character was Luthor, and bad to the bone, despite the good person Lex was trying his hardest to become. 

But it was there in the sometimes selfish or self-centered attitude which we were trying our hardest to break him of. At times Lex was a sage older brother but more often then not Lex was a shy sweet younger brother with skirmishes into the brat side. Lex was clingy when it came to Clark. I noticed right away that Lex didn't like to be separated from Clark for any length of time. I think for Lex, Clark was an anchor, something that grounded him to the earth where no one else could. He also had to have Clark's full attention all of the time. He had to be the center of Clark's world. 

The good boy that I loved would disappear when Chloe or Lana or Pete came over to take up Clark's time. They as well as us received quite a shocker, especially when he put a toad down Chloe's shirt and a slug in Lana's hair. He also told them that "Clark's mine and I don't share." 

No one took that statement very well. Clark had been dismayed even puzzled by the behavior. He tried to reason with the eleven-year-old Alexander (though he behaved more like he was eight or younger.) He was stubborn. Martha couldn't even reason with him and I know Martha can wrap Lex around her finger like any one of her boys. 

If Clark left the farm without Alexander to go visit with his friends, Lex would mope and cry for hours. He'd turn hurtful even hateful. It was at these times that Lex and Clark would fight. It would sometimes turn physical with Lex throwing the first punch. Martha would ground Lex and deny him desert, even when he apologized. Alexander would cry and call us mean. Then once again he'd hold a grudge and we wouldn't hear a word from him for days. He didn't exactly ignore us but he wouldn't speak to us either. It was very frustrating. I should have gone bald for all of the hair pulling I did at those times, fortunately I still have a full head of hair though its now peppered with more gray than there had been three weeks ago. 

Martha and I are too old to be dealing with another child, let alone a special needs case. Lex was overly emotional at times and now I could see why Lionel would say some of the things he did. Still there was no excuse for belittling a boy for his emotions. When Lex reverted to adulthood he would be quite ashamed and embarrassed by his behavior and apologize profusely. Martha and I would let him know that he had already been forgiven long beforehand. But that he was still going to do penance for his misbehavior. He took it gracefully. 

I think we were teaching him some things he already knew but had never learned from a parent, now he was learning it from his surrogates. He was loved and we had boundaries and if he crossed them he'd be punished and that was the way to raise a child, to teach them what lines they can and cannot cross, teaching them right from wrong and the understanding that for their actions there are consequences. 

Though Lex did describe it in scientific terms "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." 

So, he knows this and he does take responsibility for his actions. All without Martha or me having to teach him this particular lesson. That is why I respect him. Teaching a kid these things doesn't have to be with a switch or a painful slap of a hand against skin. I'm guessing Lionel may have taught Lex the hard way. 

This week Lex began having troubles sleeping. Mostly nightmares. I think his life has been full of heartbreak and trauma. It doesn't surprise me after hearing his screams in the middle of the night or listening to his broken sobs over a cup of relaxing tea around two in the morning the terrors he's suffered through. Lex doesn't calm easily it takes hours. Meanwhile we'll talk and he'll cry some and describe his nightmares. 

Lex was able to differentiate the memories from his subconscious mind trying to exorcise - expel its demons. Lex has a very fascinating mind. I don't wonder now why it is that Lex is the way he is. I know exactly why his mind split the way it had. I think anyone living under those circumstances would be broken, would be lost and traveling down the wrong road, would have twisted values and twisted expressions of love. It is also during these talks that I fear the most for both of my boys. 

Lex isn't going to get well. I can feel it in my bones. He'll pass for sane but I know he's not. Within him the two halves of him will continue to fight, light verses dark, and I can only see one outcome, Lex will turn to the dark eventually. It's in his programming and in his make-up and in his gene pool, though I hope he will not end up like Lionel, I truly do. 

I want Lex to get well. I want Lex to be a good guy. I want for him to stay friends with Clark and continue to be influenced by our values and Clark's loving nature. I want Lex to stay Alexander and I know I'm hoping for something that just isn't going to happen. It's already beginning. We've come too late or else we haven't done nearly enough to help him, he'll turn. I can feel it and I mourn for him and for us all. 

On this particular night though we were not awakened by a nightmare, it was rare when this kind of thing happened but it did occur on occasion, that Lex would tip toe into mine and Martha's room quavering and afraid of the monsters in the closet and under the bed in his room. The first time it happened I wasn't amused, the second and third and even this latest time, I'm still not amused by it. How can Lex be so fearless and exploratory in the daylight yet so afraid and skittish in the night? The mind boggled. 

I'm a man in my Fifties. I work and run a farm. I go to bed early so I can wake up early. I don't like having my sleep interrupted by a twenty something year old man with a mind of a child in a serious fright over imaginary monsters climbing over the top of me to get to Martha. What am I - Chopped Liver? Why does the kid, heck any kid gravitate first towards Martha? I can chop-suey the monsters a lot better than my wife can. Besides that it's just my luck I'm the one they climb over to get to her, being as how I am the closest one to the door. I like to sleep on the door's side of the bed it makes it easier to get up in the morning and not disturb Martha. 

Lex is shivering and he's cold to the touch. He also weighs a ton and OUCH! His knee just got me in a sensitive place. GRRR! 

This was ridiculous. 

Martha tries to soothe him though she's still somewhat sleeping. Martha has that weird knack where she can soothe child in her sleep and kick me out of the bed all at the same time. She makes me deal with the imaginary monsters when I'd much rather be sleeping snuggled up beside her, where Lex was right now. I growled at the unfairness of my luck. Lex thinks it is an invite from Martha my being kicked out of the bed. He's smirking he's no longer shaking with fear. 

Lex's eyes are getting drowsy. He's all snuggly like a cuddle bug in a rug. A warn out old stuffed bunny rabbit was held tightly in his arms with his head resting on Martha's shoulder. I'm totally disgusted. I have to wonder whether he's faking it or not. 

"Oh no you don't, lover boy." I say grumpily. 

Martha awakens enough to glare at me. I sound jealous her eyes accuse me. Lex pouts a little. His eyes are tearing up. Oh great, a crying jag. Could this night possibly get any worse? I take a moment to think on that and I realize that yes it can. I can get kicked to the curb and park myself on the couch downstairs if I didn't behave myself. However, one thing was for certain, Lex Luthor, child-mind or no child-mind was not going to be sleeping in the same bed as my wife and I. There wasn't any room in the bed for the three of us and secondly, well, sleeping with another man in the bed just wasn't going to happen. No matter that Lex was Alexander for the moment but it was bound to be a different matter in the morning. Besides how was I going to explain it to Clark, hell how was I going to live it down or even look Lex in the eyes again if I, out of my laziness, let him sleep with Martha and me? It just wasn't going to happen. 

Lex clutched the stuffed bunny even tighter to his chest and whimpered pitifully. "Bunnicula's scared to. Can't I sleep here with you guys?" Bunnicula is named after that vampire bunny character James Howe created in his book, "The Celery Stalks at Midnight" or some such title to that affect. It happened to be Alexander's favorite book. I have Martha again to thank for that. She read him the book on his first night here and when she gave him that stuffed bunny I should have known it would come to this. 

Martha was a sucker for a kid in fear. I was proud though when she stuck to her grounds and explained to him that he was too big to be sleeping with us. She also told him that I was an experienced monster hunter and that I would be the one to get rid of the monsters under the bed and in the closet and behind the shower curtain in the bathroom. 

"Thank you Martha." I say with a false smile on my face. I am so exhausted. I don't know how much more of this I can take. Clark was never this bad as a child. In fact Clark had always been an even natured boy without any fear, though on occasions he did have disturbing dreams, but nothing like what Lex went through on a near nightly basis. 

"Son," I begin but Lex interrupts me. 

"Please don't make me go back to my room. There are monsters there, under the bed and in my closet and it tried to grab my feet when I went to use the rest room. I have a scratch on my ankle from its claw so I know it was real. See." He grabbed his foot and held it high above his head so I could see the tiny red line by his ankle. He probably scraped it accidentally against one of the books he had littered all over on the floor in Clark's old room. I sighed. I was in no mood to play along. But I had to remind myself Lex was a child and I couldn't get angry with a kid just because they were in the middle of an irrational fear. 

"I have a magical flash light." I say, trying on a soothing smile. "It has yet to fail me when it comes to destroying monsters. I think you will like it. Its mag-light saber." I say with fake enthusiasm. As my back and bones all go "snap-crackle-pop" I grumble under my breath, complaining, "God I am way too old for this." 

Lex `s eyes narrow with suspicion. Clark has never looked at me like that before nor any of his friends that had spent the night here during slumber parties back when Clark was in grade school. It was a look of total distrust. It panged me to see it. Clark had always been a trusting child. Lex it would seem had had the trust ripped out of him even at this young age. Lionel's handy work no doubt about it. The bastard! Kids shouldn't know suspicion like this. They shouldn't have their imaginations mistreated and their trust broken. I was dismayed to see it there within Lex's eyes. 

I endeavored to go through with my farce though. "Come on." I say, invitation like. "I'll go scare off those monsters of yours. Then we can all get some sleep. Okay." 

Lex reluctantly fell into step behind me. This mag-light and my usual Monster Hunter Jedi-Knight routine had never failed me before I'd used it countless times on Clark and Pete and other kids in the past, and now it failed me. Rather it failed to appease Lex and exorcise his fears, as it never had with the other kids in my experience. I turned on the lights in his room I searched every nook and cranny, every closet space and under the bed space there was. All that I could find was some books and dust bunnies. 

"See" I say with a wave of my hand like a magician introducing his newest trick. "Ta-da! All gone. No monsters in the closet or under the bed. The magic flashlight saber works yet another miracle." 

Lex frowned at me and shook his head at my antics. He was such a jaded child. "No they're not. They'll get me when you turn off the lights." Lex insisted stubbornly. 

"Okay, how about this." I say willing to compromise and get this situation done and over with. I wanted to go to sleep. I was tired and I had a long hard day ahead of me. "We leave on the hall lights and we leave your door open a crack that way you have plenty of light and no monsters will get you." I was proud of my ingeniousness. 

Lex though had other ideas. "The monsters will still be there. They will still eat me." He persisted. "Can't I sleep in Clark's room?" he whined, pleaded, whatever tone it was. It was both annoying and appealing all at the same time. I was a father being twisted around a second son's finger and I was helpless to stop myself. 

I frowned. I didn't like that idea. Lex was too old bodily to be sleeping in my son's bed with my son. I tried a last ditch effort and still Lex refused to believe that I had gotten rid of the monsters. I blamed Lionel for this night from hell. If Lionel hadn't squashed his son's trust like a bug then Lex wouldn't have me in this particular pickle. I had no choice. He couldn't sleep with me and he couldn't sleep with Martha. I wasn't going to have him sleep with the two of us. The bed wouldn't allow for it. Plus, well, its simple really, I didn't want a man in our bed unless that man was me and that was the end of it. 

I gave up. I sighed, exasperated. "Fine. But there will be no shenanigans or hanky panky, understand?" I growled. 

Alexander's eyes looked into my own. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth as the old expression went. I can't say as I trusted such a look of innocence upon his face, but I could tell that Lex did not inhabit the violet depths it was Alexander there and a kid that age didn't know anything about sex at all. 

"What's hanky panky?" Alexander asked me. 

Quickly I reply. "It's nothing." Cutting him off, knowing that a quizzical mind like Lex's would come up with all kinds of questions to ask me. Questions I was too tired to get into and questions he was for the moment too young to have the answers to. Lex frowned, he didn't believe me but he knew better then to badger me on the subject. It was best to move on to other things he wanted to know. "Well I wanted to play camp out with Clark. We can make a tent of his sheets and we can tell stories and read a book with his own magic flash light." 

I wasn't too pleased with that scenario but I found I couldn't deny him, so I said. "All right, but don't stay up too late. Clark has school in the morning." 

This as usual brought a fierce displeased scowl on the youngster's face. He didn't like that Clark was going away from him again even if it was only for a few short hours. 

"Don't give me that look Alexander, we've explained this to you time and time again. Or would you rather sleep on the couch down stairs?" I asked crankily. 

Lex blinked quickly and replaced the scowl with a neutral smile. "No, no, no, that's okay. We won't stay up late I promise." He said back tracking pretty quickly. Just as I knew he would. 

"All right then. Good night Alexander and give Clark the same message. No hanky-panky or shenanigans or late night play time. All right." 

"Yes sir." Lex replied instantly and happily. 

As I crawl back under my covers and snuggle up against my wife I can't help but think I've somehow been played. Taking care of Lex was an exhausting endeavor. 

The next week was hardly better then the previous four weeks before it. Only thing was it got worse. Lex was relaxing which was a good thing and I could see that he was beginning to heal, that he was flowing more easily and more frequently into his adult mental state and personality was great for all of us. No more midnight monster hunts, no more blood curdling screams or hysterical sob fests during the nights. Sure there were still nights when Lex was insomniac and the two of us would sit down and drink some hot cocoa or tea and talk or I could find Lex and Clark talking over things, like school and friendship and possible mental health institutions if Lex didn't heal completely by the end of his stay with us. I was glad they were discussing these issues. I was glad that they realized that Lex couldn't stay here on the farm indefinitely no matter that we might want him to. There was a world out there and a business that needed its manager. Lex needed to carry on with life. 

The downside though was that Lionel started nosing around. Lex managed to avoid him like the plague. The kid had the devil's own luck. I on the other hand was not so lucky. God, how I hated Lionel Luthor! If I hadn't already had reasons enough of my own to hate him over I would have hated him on principle for Lex alone. The man was a monster. He had tried everything in his power to bend and break his own son and to make him into his own image. Lionel was a sick and twisted.... And I should really watch my language. Martha doesn't like a dirty mouth. 

I found myself lying all of the time to the arrogant bleep. Lionel tended to invade personal space. I knew it for the intimidation tactic that it was. I wasn't a lackey and I wouldn't be cowed. I didn't care how powerful he was or what papers he'd held over my head those years before. I wouldn't give Lex up to him. No matter that I felt physically ill every time I had to fabricate. A Kent was an honest man and lying was usually left for dire situations. Maybe this was one, but I couldn't quiet my conscience and I couldn't quite convince myself that I was doing the right thing here. 

However when Lex comes up to me after these confrontations between myself and Lionel and he hugs me. I feel like I'm twenty feet tall. He's my son now and I was going to protect him with every breath in my body. I know I can't protect him forever and I know he's not going to stay Alexander forever either. I've seen the good in him and I've seen the bad to. I pray every night the bad loses out and the good wins in him. But I know that once he leaves this farm, once he's back out there in the land of Lionel and Metropolis I can't stop what's going to happen to him. 

And I can't stop feeling heartache for him. The sweet boy that I love and know is going to be the most ruthless man the world has ever seen, the final product of Luthor development. 

I pity the future. 

I pity my son.... and the world. 

But most of all, I pity Lex. 

Finis 


End file.
